Tech Talk

Although December has just begun, the holiday shopping season is in full swing. One of my favorite sites for technology gift ideas is www.cnet.com. Check their Holiday Gift Ideas and choose from cameras, cell phones, laptops, mp3 players, tvs, and much more. In addition to reviews, they offer product specifications and price comparisons. They are sure to have something for that hard-to-shop-for person!

I have loved my Palm Treo since 2001. However, when I saw the new iPhone, I fell in love. I told my husband and he asked Santa to come early to our house with a shiny new iPhone for me! It is so beautiful, the screen just amazing. Then, reality set in. How would I sync it? I had been using my Palm software along with my horribly outdated Sharkware 1.0 contact system for years. I decided it was time to move to Outlook. The next issue to be addressed concerned my contact information. Did I really need to move all my contacts to the iPhone? The time was right to do a bit of housecleaning and updating. So, that's what I am doing in my spare time. I still have lots of new iPhone features to check out and I will keep you posted. If you are thinking about an iPhone, check out this video on how it works.

I have never returned a gift my husband gave me. So, it was with a great amount of anxiety and angst that I confessed to him that my new iPhone was not working for me. While it is terrific for surfing the web, checking the stock market and weather and making calls, the lack of a "to do" or task list and issues syncing among multiple computers with Microsoft Outlook were a deal breaker for me. I have returned happily to my Treo 650 which really makes my life worth living. Syncing it on my work and home computers works like a charm and I never realized just how important to me the search feature is on the Treo. If I can't remember when a meeting is, I just have to search for the person's name and everything about them quickly pops up (the calendar entry for the meeting, their contact information, and anything else I have entered into my Treo about them). On the iPhone, I had to know when the meeting was in order to find it. So, although the iPhone did not work for me, my husband is happily using it and he feels it works just fine for him. To assuage his guilt over unexpectedly acquiring the iPhone, he surprised me with a bluetooth headseat for my Treo. I can't begin to tell you how much I like it!

Now, if the Palm Treo people would just come out with a nicer screen for web surfing, my life would be just perfect!

Today is the day that the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show opens in Las Vegas. If you can't make it there, you should visit Cnet's site to see the latest electronics and gadgets that may (or may not) become available to us. It's also a great place to see the Best and Worst Technology of 2007.

It's almost time to make a decision on buying an HDTV. But, buying a new television is not as easy as it was in the past. Not only are there technical decisions to be made, there are decorating decisions to be made (do we hang it on the wall or put it on a new piece of furniture). It can also be a very expensive decision so it should be made with care. Cnet.com has a terrific section on "Everything you need to know about HDTV", including a section on how to save your old TV from a snowy death for about $20 or less.

If you'd like to know how HDTV works, visit Wikipedia for the technical details.

The Federal Communications Commission has a guide for consumers including a countdown to Digital TV Transition Day which is February 17, 2009.